We acknowledge the traditional owners of this
land, the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation.

We stand here today as the beneficiaries of
racist and unreconciled dispossession. We
recognise both our privilege and our obligation
to remember the mistakes of the past, act on
the problems of today and build a future free
from discrimination.
We recognise the continuing dispossession,
discrimination and genocide committed
against Indigenous people, from which all
material benefits held today by non-Indigenous
Australians have come about. We acknowledge
that the racisim that permeates our society is
also present in student organisations.

This publication is an
annual collection of works
by wom*n, compiled by the
University of Sydney’s
Wom*n’s Collective. It
provides a rare opportunity
for expression, collaboration
and dialogue about the
complex experiences of being
a wom*n in contemporary
society. You may notice that
the pieces included here
aren’t telling one story, but
rather it’s lots of personal
and political threads to make
up the intricate patchwork
of wom*n’s experience of the
world. You may have lived
many of the stories included
in here; others may seem
completely new to you – but
that’s okay, because we need
to listen to each other,
and recognise there are not
only a few opinions and ways
of being a woman, but many.
Listening to each other’s
stories is how we will make
our voices stronger. This
is why wom*n speaking and
listening to each other is an
inherently political act. It
gives us power – and that’s
why we are “Growing Strong.”

18 The Sexual Assault Committee
21 Asylum Seeking is a Feminist Issue
22 Radical History of International Women’s Day
24 A Case for Wom*n’s Self Defence
25 It Was Then
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Some themes and topics discussed in
this publication may be distressing for
some readers. We would like to advise
that sexual assault, body image, abuse,
human rights violations and racism are
discussed.

The Wom*nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Collective meets every
Wednesday at 1pm on the second floor of
Manning House.
For more info, or to get involved, contact
usydwomensofficers@gmail.com
PAGE 2

growing strong

f

Glossary

A
non-exhaustive
list
of
Tricky terms and exceptional
explanations

Ableism: Ableism is a way of thinking and making value-judgments about human
bodies that serve to marginalise, other, and oppress disabled people.
Autonomy: The right for women to organise around issues that affect them, without
input from men. The need for autonomy stems from historical traditions in which
women were denied an input into decisions that affected their lives. The women’s collective is an autonomous organisation and the women’s room is an autonomous space.
Cisgender: Individuals who have a match between the gender they were assigned at
birth, their bodies and their personal identity.
Feminism: The advocacy of wom*n’s social, political and economic equality.
Gender Binary: The popular narrative in which there are only two distinct genders;
masculine and feminine. The gender binary sets these two genders in opposition and
negates one while the other dominates. It also obscures any other form of gender
expression.
Gender Queer: A term that refers to an expression, identity or presentation of gender that is outside the normative gender binary.
Heteronormativity: It is the body of lifestyle norms that holds that people fall
into distinct and complementary genders (man and woman) with natural roles in life.
It asserts that heterosexuality is the only sexual orientation or only norm, and states
that sexual and marital relations are most (or only) fitting between people of opposite
sexes.
Intersectionality: A conceptual way of explaining experience wherein facets of an
individual’s identity such as race, sexuality, gender and ability intersect to form multiple and unique experiences of oppression and privilege.
Misogyny: The hatred or dislike of women.
Patriarchy: A system in which men posses social and political control.
Queer: A term for individuals who identify as not heterosexual in their gender or
sexuality.
Rape Culture: A concept that links rape and sexual violence to the culture of a
society, and in which prevalent attitudes and practices normalise, excuse, tolerate, and
even condone rape.
Sex: The biological make-up of a person’s reproductive anatomy.
Trans*: A broad umbrella term referring to people, whose gender identify and/or
presentation transgress traditional gender norms.
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PAGE 3

Gynobibliophobia

In 1959, Norman Mailer famously stated that, “the sniffs I get from the ink of the women are
always fey, old-hat, Quaintsy Goysy, tiny, too dykily psychotic, crippled, creepish, fashionable,
frigid, outer-Baroque, maquillé in mannequin’s whimsy, or else bright and stillborn.” The notion
that men and women are inherently different writers is a dangerous one and although we have
arguably come a long way since 1959, the literary world does not seemed to have purged itself of
Mailer’s sentiment.
In 2010, a study by VIDA, an organization advocating for women in literary arts, exposed the
gender inequality in the literary sphere through a count of the female-authored books and
female reviewers in a range of publications. The list included Harper’s Bazaar, London Review of
Books, New Republic, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, The New Yorker amongst half a dozen others.
Across the board men dominated these pages. The significance of the VIDA study is that it made
people stop and question the culture of the literary world, to ask if what we may have perceived
previously as a mere coincidence was in fact something greater? As VIDA points out, “these
statistics are simply the beginning of a conversation we believe is necessary—not an end point,
but a way to think about the more nuanced questions such numbers beg to be asked.”
Unfortunately, Australia’s book-reviewing publications mostly follow this pattern. In 2011, The
Age reviewed 344 books. Men authored 59 per cent of these books and reviewed 62 per cent of
them. At the Australian Literary Review, only 18 per cent of the books reviewed were authored by
women. Thirty-six reviewers were men. Seven were women. On the other hand, literary journals
like Kill Your Darlings and Voiceworks were more balanced. Rather interestingly, Voiceworks read
their submissions gender blind. Nevertheless, it seems safe to say that the overall picture is not
promising for female writers.

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growing strong

Verity Cooke

An emerging response to this difficult climate has been to introduce literary prizes specifically for
female authors, since winners and shortlists help to generate sales and thus enable women writers,
who may have otherwise been overlooked in the current system, to continue writing. However, it
is also argued that by doing this, we relegate women’s literature to its own category and further
perpetuate the notion that women’s writing is inherently different.
In her 1998 article, Scent of a Woman’s Ink, Francine Prose points out that although subject
matter may be affected by the lived experience of a particular gender, “there is no male or
female language, only the truthful or fake, the precise or vague, the inspired or the pedestrian.”
She conjures up a dreamlike scenario in which our libraries were genderless, in which the only
binary was good and bad writing. Of course this is not, logistically speaking, a world we will be
able to create and Mailer’s gynobibliphobia, as Prose dubbed it, still exists in the expectations and
presumptions surrounding what women write about. Meghan O’ Rourke of Slate writes, “The
world of novels, we often hear, is a feminine one—book buyers are predominantly women; novels
and memoirs by women and about women’s lives often do extremely well commercially….but
VIDA’s study raises questions about how seriously women writers are taken and how viable it is for
them to make a living at writing.”
It would be wonderful if we lived in a world where specifically female prizes were not needed to
counteract the disparity of the current system. These prizes seem to be a practical response to a less
than ideal situation as they may help to financially alleviate the struggle women writers face in an
unequal publishing environment. However, the task of challenging the notion that women and men
are somehow inherently different writers, that women’s writing is ‘fey’ and frivolous, is an ongoing
battle. It is a subtle confrontation and exists in such a way that numbers on a pie chart may not be
enough to measure it.
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PAGE 5

Creative
Communities
Elizabeth Mora

“We will not succeed in navigating the complex
environment of the future by peering relentlessly
into a rear view mirror. To do so, we would be
out of our minds.” (Robinson, 2011, p. XII)

Creative Change: Re-imagining Creativity in our Complex World
It is through the engagement between society and creativity that we can evaluate notions of difference and
diversity which are continuously shaping and beckoning changes within our contemporary world. This case
study will investigate how notions of social and cultural consciousness – such as tradition and identity- can
be explored through emerging and established rhetorics of creativity. However, it is important to note that
whilst the project of this case study embraced creativity as a multidimensional phenomenon, the rhetoric of
creativity as a process of social change and innovative thought was used as the main criteria by which the
project was evaluated in terms of its ability to realise its aim of fostering a cross-sectional network of ideas,
people and communities.
The planning and actualisation of a community event organised by The Australian Ecuadorian Cultural
Association (2013) to celebrate International Women’s Day is used as an example to illustrate how this
rhetoric of creativity can engage specifically with South American Women- a community of people which
due to social and cultural renditions of identity have been disadvantaged by the established frameworks or
institutions of our society. As the coordinator of the event, I reflected that through the creative mediums of
dance, music and art- performance acts which involve collaboration and direct participation the Australian
Ecuadorian Cultural Association ( AECA) could uphold renditions of culture and society specific to the life
experience of South American Women without compromising the main objective of the event which was to
use mainstream strategies, such as counselling and education, to alleviate the continual process of adjustment
or disconnection often attached to immigration. This, as well as redefining the compounded effects of this
process (such as isolation) through a creative framework, was the intent of our event.

Establishing the Basics: Creating a Collaborative Creative Culture
The concept of the AECA International Women’s Day Event which was later renamed and translated to
“Dia De La Mujer Festival” began as a response to the increased isolation felt by South American women
on account of increased experiences of social and economic disadvantage. As an ‘inalienable human
potentiality’, I hoped that the rhetoric of creativity would provide the elements for a new synthesis between
diverging notions of self-hood and collective identity.
However the conceptual use of creative rhetoric in resolving experiences of “otherness” was further
compounded by the limitations of individual agency which often prevent small community groups from
progressing past deeply entrenched societal problems. AECA had never organised an International Women’s
PAGE 6

growing strong

“

Creativity is a practice of life which enables us
to constantly create and re-create our world

”

Day event before, and had not yet found a way of positing the feminist framework of International
Women’s Day celebrations alongside the cultural experience of South American women.
As the coordinator of the event, I viewed these challenges as an opportunity for AECA to collaborate with
like minded organisations with the aim of improving their capacity to create an event such as this one.
This transformed the organisation of the event into a creative process whereby experiences of continual
exchange enabled different organisations to inform and reform their understanding of creativity against
the objective of social change. The outcome of this collaborative process which also involved the input and
support of artists and interested professionals, both within and outside the South American community;
was a kind of illustrated sociology by which the dilemmas of otherness and disadvantage worked as an
impetus for collective problem solving. The nature of exchange equally transformed and increased the
multiplicity of ways interested individuals and organisations used different modes of communication to
strengthen their capacity and ability to address social concerns in general.

Realising a Creative Rhetoric: Dialogue between Creators and
Consumers.
Given the collaborative process involved, the format of the event reflected an innovative approach
to the series of dilemmas which had compounded its realisation from the beginning. For example, it
was established that an effective way of situating cultural experiences within the feminist framework
of International Women’s day celebration would be a direct engagement with the creative disciplines
of art, dance and music. Local South American Artists and professionals which were friends, relatives
or well known role models to South American women were invited to encourage an intersectional
dialogue between society and self-hood. By providing a space where women could perform their
social experience through the creative disciplines of music, art and dance, AECA as a community
organisation was equally fostering the language of social change through the personal stories and
overarching historical narratives of culture, tradition and identity.

An Aspirational Future: The Role of Innovative Thinking in the
Realm of Community Engagement
As a system of thought which encourages the discourse of ideas within contextualised subjectivities,
creativity as a rhetoric of change and innovative thought has transformed community organisations such
as AECA into active agents of our globalised world. The collaborative creative culture through which the
Dia De la Mujer festival emerged both as a creative community and as a proactive organisation, enabled
AECA to re-orientate its purpose as not only reference point for the unpredictably of human affairs, but
also as a knowledge base of skills and ideas loaded with the capacity to “create new ideas…and products
within and for the ‘creative economy’ of the 21st Century.” It therefore becomes evident that community
engagement as a milieu which fosters “creative knowledge production” can effectively anticipate a
reformed society “that values ideas, difference, and even eccentricity and idiosyncrasy”.
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PAGE 7

Own Your Sexuality
(Excerpt from an article originally from Birdee article)

Lily Frances Pratchett
You will be made to think of sex as either something you
should wait for because of its supposed link with your moral
validity, or something you should get over and done with
so that you may gain that much lusted-after ‘coolness’ that
comes with experience. Probably both.
People will be interested in your sexual status. Virgin, slut,
prude. You will be made to feel as though your body is not
wholly your own; it is, in essence, a product of society.
You will be made to feel like a commodity to be sold to men.
Do they want a ‘pure’ woman: someone they can dominate
and teach to pleasure them in just the right ways? Or do they
want someone who’s already been taught: who they won’t
have to bother with too much? Just, like, do it already.
Is it a big deal? Are you getting too emotional about it? After
all, ‘sex is just sex’. You will be made to feel stupid to think
that sex equates to love. You will be made to feel like a ‘slut’
if you think they are wholly separate.
Sex is normal, so they will tell you. Everyone does it. It’s ‘natural’, ‘human’. Lack of sex drive is ‘abnormal’, ‘wrong’. You
should have sexual feelings. You are the product of people
having sex, and you are to one day carry a child who is the
product of having sex, because that’s just the way it is, right?
You are a woman, you have the body parts, so why not?
But be careful, you are a young girl, not a young boy. Too
much sexuality and you will be berated all the same. You
might start to get the feeling that you are to desire sex, but
only innocently, never fully consciously.
So why not fuck the shame, fuck the standards, fuck it all.
You are a person with your own unique identity and desires
and your sexuality is nobody else’s damn business… as much
as they might make it feel like it is sometimes.
PAGE 8

Now You Know...
Stella Ktenas Karver
growing strong

I laid my head in your lap, and thought I might call this love.
I could hear your blood rushing through your limbs,
your veins thin, all tangled together,
mapped out like city streets beneath your skin.

A Letter to a Girl
I Once Loved
Nicky Cayless

It was beautiful.
Your heart was trapped beneath breasts those days,
mountains more insurmountable than Everest, than Kilimanjaro.
your curves, a muscle memory that you despised.
I could have sketched your hips on a page in moments,
but you had spent your life wishing for straight lines & desert plains.
Lonely evenings, I practiced kissing with the bathroom mirror.
You practiced smiling, learning to move the lips that never felt your own.
Two weeks ago, you changed your name.
I have been training my tongue in this new language, all these pronouns I never loved.
I stumble. I fall.
The echo of hurt in your eyes reminds me of the butterflies I have locked in my stomach.
I haven’t needed them since you.
You tell me your mother will not call you the name
you’ve had carved into your bones since the day you were born.
Names, she says, are immutable.
“A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet.
My daughter, by any other sex, would be my daughter.”
I look so closely at your bound ribs, the rosy cheeks you tried to carve into
like apples. I see so much of the woman I learnt to adore.
But now, with your smooth chest, your close-cropped hair
and brogues on slender feet,
you are more beautiful
and more you
than ever.
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PAGE 9

What is disability
feminism?

What is disability feminism? How is it
different to mainstream feminism?
These are all questions I seek to answer
for you, but I want to do so in a way that
is accessible and the way of doing this
which is most effective is through the
idea which has proven fundamentally
important in my life: the personal is
political. Note, that I will be focusing
on the experience of physical disability
as it is my personal experience and my
academic focus.
I came to feminism when I read The
Beauty Myth when I was 17 and
although I will be forever grateful for the
activist/political awakening it started
in me, there where many things about
a straight, white, able-bodied feminist
discourse which did not address my
experience as a young, queer disabled
woman. It would take me a long time
to find a feminism which spoke to parts
of my identity but not all, as how to be
a proud disabled queer woman has not
been written…yet.

Jax Jacki Brown
PAGE 10

I did however discover the disability
rights movement and the Social Model
of Disability which views disability as
socially constructed by an inaccessible
built environment; inaccessible buildings
inadequate transport and housing, and
lack of equal access to employment
opportunities. These external barriers
which limit people with non-normative
body’s full and equal participation in
society are maintained through negative
attitudes or stereotypes of disability, such
as disability is a personal tragedy where
it is assumed people with disabilities
are in need of help or pity instead of
better access. Although disability politics
ramped my mind I began to become
aware that it often focused on the voices
and concerns of disabled men who,
when hearing of women with disabilities
issues dismissed them as ‘personal’ and
not political. In response in the early 90’s
authors such as Jenny Morris, (1991,

Pride Against Prejudice: Transforming
Attitudes to Disability) began exploring
how the concerns of disabled women
and the lived experience of the body
is inherently political and disability
feminism emerged.
Disability feminism shares many of
the fundamentals of feminism: an
analyses of gender, power, the body
and patriarchy. However disability
feminism also focuses on ‘the politics
of appearance, the medicalization of
the body, the privilege of normalcy’;
favouring the normative body, and
argues that it is society which needs
changing not the body (GarlandThomson, 2011, p.16; emphases added).
Interestingly, some of the issues of
concern to disabled women are the
opposite of mainstream feminism.
Sexual objectification is one such key
issue. Women with disabilities struggle
to be seen as sexually desirable at all.
Mainstream feminism fights against
being seen sexually, whereas by
contrast many women want to be seen
as sexual and be given the option of
fulfilling gender roles which as partner
and potential mother. Women with
disabilities are often viewed as lacking a
sexuality or in the case of women with
intellectual disabilities as hyper-sexual
or uncontrollable. These perceptions
have wide spread ramifications for our
self-confidence, body image and future
choices. Extensive research by Women
with disabilities Australia reveals that
women with disabilities are subject to
extremely high instances of violence and
sexual assaults. We are ‘at least twice as
likely to be sexuality assaulted as nondisabled women’, studies indicate that
up to ‘90% of women with intellectual
disabilities are likely to have been sexual
abused before they reach 18’ (http://
www.wwda.org.au/snapshot.htm). In
this context of systemic abuse it can be
difficult to find relationships which are
growing strong

Disability Feminism

healthy and respectful. Even acquiring a hot
pash on a Saturday night can be hard when
you are viewed as not belonging in a bar or
club, and told, which has happened to me
many times, that you are brave to be out at
all and pattered on the head like a child. This
difficulty finding sexual partners due to this
pervasive and unsexy attitudes results in there
being less likeihood of becoming a parent, or
having equal access to reproductive services
and if we do become a parent of being
provided with the support to enable you to
parent effectively. Newell reports that a third
of children are removed from the care of
disabled mothers due to lack of support in
the home combined with the presumption
they are going to be ‘bad’ parents (2008,
p.6). Also of concern to disability feminists
is the significant gender gap in employment
and income between men and women with
disabilities with over 50% of women with
disabilities live on or below the poverty line
(http://www.wwda.org.au/snapshot.htm).
So what can women with disabilities offer
mainstream feminism? An insight into how
it is to live with difference which would
prove useful to all women as we are all only
temporally undisabled; we will all age and
live with levels of pain and discomfort of
a changing body. Developing the capacity
and knowledge from which to traverse these
changes is fundamental to feeling good about
oneself in a world which continues to value
youth and a particular kind of ‘beauty’. It is
these issues which women with disabilities
have complex valuable knowledge of and can
offer to our sisters, lovers, friends and allies.

Super Skinny
Sara Amorosi
“Buy some scales,” the doctor told me
And I felt it stir within me
And I knew that I would feel it
Coming on and coming surely
My science mind said “Yes,”
Tracking does make sense
But my body disagreed
And felt it was penance

Magpies, Cassandra, Sydney, 2009

The holiday season is waning

Julia Clark

And now the world expecting
Desire to shed kilos
And a girly face presenting
But I awake to fatness

Horizons of silver-green eucalypts
Are set ablaze with honey glow outlines.
The warmth glances upon my fingertips
And face; e’er fickle but remaining mine.

And hairy legs besides
I don my super skinny jeans

Then, under a cherry blossom shadow,

Give the rest, all my goodbyes

I’m plunged into a damp and cool false dark.
It’s another world. Suppose some don’t know
The clarity of a contrast so stark.
My Primrose darts about the neighbours’ cars
And rubbish bins. She’s nearly out of sight,
I call out to her and she turns just so far.
My everlasting pea, my world of light.
Racing into the golden sunset sky,
She is gone within the blink of my eye.

Right: Deck of Cards, Auth Kash Karver
PAG E 12

growing strong

r
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PAG E 13

CONTROL

Alisha Aitken-Radburn

My eyes cannot shut. The mirrorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accusations suffocate my thoughts. The prying eyes violate every curve
of my diminishing frame. Analyzing, judging, criticizing my every feature. Superimposing my figure against
the marketed desire, taking hostage my mind. It controls each and every action to keep me to this bed. The
mirror selects its targets and unleashes an endless offensive of condemnation. My hands flatten down my
thin bed sheet around me, sticking to my skin, illuminating every flaw.
A skeletal frame contorted amongst the sea of polyester.
Mechanically, I begin to dissect the day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner.The failures of the day outweigh any of
the feats: the hour of imprisonment. Our movements being monitored by the men in white coats. We sit.
We wait. They watch. No one can move during this hour. Our dinner is forced into digestion. The shame
returns to me now as the mirror has control of the hallways. It feeds each indistinguishable inmate identical
dark imaginings. The darkness seeps around my pupils and penetrates the back of my skull, as I wait for the
hours to escape. I wait to make my escape, to repair the damage that the day of observation has done.
As my eyes are tempted to sleep the mirror shakes me awake. It incites a sign of life, cutting down my
paralyzed frame. The demands dictate my actions. I reach for a corner of the sheet and, avoiding sound,
peel my protector away. I sit up. My eyes strain to form figures through the black. Endless bodies stretch out
parallel beside me, infinite prisoners of the mirror. The fitted sheet twists underneath my elbow as I shift towards one of the captives. My fingers stretch out searching for skin and without words, I communicate our
crime. Our toes make contact with the cool linoleum and we make our way through the maze of sterilized
hallways. Each corridor carries us closer to control, the decreasing numbers echoing our intention. Sharp
air bites our emaciated bodies as burst into the suburbs.
We run. Our feet beat against the pavement. Waves of pain rip up our shins. We push past overwhelming inertia, the sound of our attack reverberating through the darkness. The pain ascends my legs, turning
each muscle stiff and sore. It invades the right side of my neck and my head pounds, focused on the burning. I sift through the endless mess of my mind to uncover my motivations. I want control. The mirror has
stripped me of any form of control. Expectations are made of me. Pressure weighs down upon me. And as
our bodies race past the silent houses, my mind is momentarily free, body, for once, relaxed. The mirrorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
accusations escape my mind. I have subdued the mirror for a short time. A wave of achievement washes
over me, I feel in control. Yet my eyes roll back as my feet press forward, capitulating to the mirror.
Faster. Faster. Faster.
The girl beside me looks to me to validate our rebellion. Her incarcerated mind orders her muscles to
contract and relax. The mirror controls her limbs in the cold air. Our feet pound in time down the identical streets. The saturated colours blind us. I knew her while she was living, living just like me, in a blur of
colour. This blur of colour we now pass with our feelings repressed. As she strides forward, she stifles the
memories of warmth that these houses induce in her. Her throat constricts with the taste of normalcy.

PAG E 14

growing strong

The rhythm of our steps screams mutual understanding. We are escaping the mirror, we are going
home, and we are recapturing our consciousness. With the flood of hope we sprint through the streets,
flying past familiar families to return to where we fit. Our calves stretch, flirting with pain, around the
tight last corner. Our steps dramatically decelerate as we reach the pair well-known doors.
We act out the movements in a fine-tuned routine. My hand grasps the steel handle. She places her
hand on top of mine, in an attempt to suppress the sound. Click. One by one, I position each fingertip against the laminate, allowing them to find balance and grip before taking the full weight of the
door against my exhausted body. Our toes make contact with the cool linoleum and we make our way
through the maze of sterilized hallways. We pass by the bureaucracy, past the patients ordered according to length of stay. We reach the final ward, filled with those caught in the futile cycle of rehabilitation. The harsh morning light intrudes on our attempt at a few hours rest. My eyes pass over the girl
lying next to me, surveying the success of our midnight movements. Her numb cheeks concave into
her face. Her skeletal shoulders penetrate the stiff hospital bed. Her ribs jut against her emaciated
chest. My eyes cannot shut.

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PAGE 15

PAG E 16

growing strong

Buds of Spring
The Spring buds are dying;
October fresh, melting in a wave of human
breath.
Lovers falling apart,
Petals pink-stripped,
The Agapanthus weeping. Deflowered,
Ravished by the lusty sun, and the Men
No longer seem as Men, but sticky
In crimson transparency: limbs seeping sap.

Super Skinny
Sara Amorosi

“Buy some scales,” the doctor told me
And I felt it stir within me
And I knew that I would feel it
Coming on and coming surely

Liquidity

My science mind said “Yes,”

Cold hearts, the yearn to forget

Tracking does make sense

But my
body disagreed
Freedom;
we suck
And felt it was penance

Poison from breath, this night-slick
Feeds our wickedness.

The holiday season is waning

And now
worldvows
expecting
Yet the
chosen
forget

our friends

Desire to shed kilos

Once touched, now sewn

And a girly face presenting

Within still and watery dreams
But I Our
awakefreedom
to fatnessflows.
And hairy legs besides
I don my super skinny jeans
Give the rest, all my goodbyes

Left: Self Portrait by Elizabeth Mora
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Lucia Moon
PAG E 17

Sexual Assault
Awareness
Committee
Who: A group of Sydney University students committed to fighting sexual
assault, abusive relationships, sexual harassment and gendered violence on
campus and off.
Why: To raise awareness and educate university students about the importance
of consent, the prevalence of abuse and the need for change concerning sexual
assault.
Events: There are a whole range of events set this year including

•

Speakers night with the Sexual Assault Service and Rape

Crisis Centre

•

Fundraising Day selling baked goods, badges and t-shirts

•

USU Consent Day on the 6th of September.
How to Get Involved

This group welcomes all students who recognise the need to fight for gender
equality and destroy rape culture. Simply join the facebook group ‘Usyd Sexual
Assault Awareness Committee’ or add your email address to the sign up list in
the Wom*n’s Room. Please keep your ears open for events and get involved!

PAGE 18

growing strong

Definition of abuse and abusive relationship
Abuse is an act of cruelty, manipulation, violence or force against an individual. This can be
physical, emotional, psychological, or all three. Abuse is just as detrimental to the wellbeing
of an individual, no matter what form it takes. A family member, friend, partner or stranger
can inflict abuse. Abuse in a relationship can be one incident of this nature or a series of
incidents. It can be carried out by either partner or just one and can be present in all kinds of
relationships, not just inflicted by straight men against straight women.
Physical abuse is the act of using physical force against another, not necessarily hitting or
kicking. Emotional and psychological abuse can involve; bullying, derailing a persons self
worth, manipulation, acts of cruelty and taking away the individual’s sense of control.
Physical violence is often excused if the perpetrator does not always commit the acts in anger,
if the acts do not involve hitting, kicking or punching, or if it is done as part of a sexual
scenario. However, if these acts are detrimental to the individual, committed after coercion
or manipulation, or against their will, it is abuse. Unwanted physical contact, grabbing,
shoving or throwing of objects all come under the umbrella of physical abuse.
Emotional and psychological abuse can be more difficult to define, as in less extreme cases
society socialises its members, particularly young men, to accept and perpetuate abusive
treatment as ‘natural.’ But as in all cases, abuse is defined solely by the effect it has on the
receiving individual.

Talk About It Survey:
The Talk about It Survey was first launched in
2010. It was started in response to the events
at St Paul’s College at our very own university
in 2009 - events that still occur in colleges and
in campuses across the country. The NUS
Women’s Department initiated and released an
online survey for all women students to fill out.
The results were grim but unsurprising; they
showed that sexual assault against women is a
reality rife within Australian universities. The
Talk About It Survey has been an incredibly
important tool in lobbying for change in the
culture of our Universities and has provided
a sobering effect on people not aware of how
prevalent gendered assault is at university.
Written by Amy Knox, the NSW Women’s Officer for National
Union of Students. For more ways to get involved in the campaigns
by NUS contact Amy at amyknox94@live.com or the 2014
National Women’s Officer Georgia Kennelly at womens@nus.asn.au
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PAG E 19

Victoria King
PAGE 2 0

growing strong

Seeking Asylum is a
Feminist Issue

Kitty-Jean Laginha

In recent months we have witnessed the
intensification of harsh asylum seeker
policy, spurred by the PNG solution
under the second Rudd government and
exacerbated by the conservative Liberals
in an effort to outdo the brutality of
Labor’s policy. The major parties’
shameful behaviour only confirms the
blatant lack of concern for human rights
and feminist progress.
There is no doubt that the ongoing
mistreatment of asylum seekers is a
feminist issue. While men, women and
children should not have to suffer under
mandatory detention, it’s important to
acknowledge the extra fight that female
refugees face in a white male dominated
society where opposing voices are
consistently ignored and silenced.
Female refugees’ experience of deprived
freedom stemming from gender-related
persecution is further exacerbated
when one attempts to claim asylum
in Australia. Instead of providing
protection, respite and relief from
trauma and subjection, women asylum
seekers continue to be supervised and
governed, their autonomy and self
determination refused and suppressed.
Women in both mainland and offshore
detention centres are made to follow
demeaning and arbitrary rules. A
refugee detained in a centre near
Darwin observed that sanitary pads and
tampons are doled out one or two at
a time, forcing women to ask or plead
guards to request these items. Pregnant
women or those with small children
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face distress and frustration with a lack of maternity clothes and
having to beg for extra nappies if children get diarrhoea. The
extreme callousness is appalling. It is not a matter of inadequate
supplies; Serco, the privately contracted ‘service provider’ that
runs detention centres (as well as prisons in Britain and Western
Australia), certainly makes plenty of money. There seems to be
the belief that some people have no right to basic, minimum
resources for well-being. (It is already problematic that pads and
tampons, essential health products, are seen as ‘luxuries’ and not
exempt from GST, while condoms and nicotine patches are.)
Moving personal stories in written letters from Manus Island tell
of mothers who feel powerless watching their children go through
severe depression; how hopeless it feels to have a son with no
desire to live.This kind of dehumanisation is the result of policies
based on deterrence and punishment.
Australia’s refugee policy, determined by petty party politics, is a
form of violence against women, causing physical anguish and
psychological trauma. There is no crime in seeking asylum.

PAGE 21

The Radical History of
International Women’s Day

Anna Sanders Robinson, Socialist Alternative

“Their stories have a lot to
offer to those of us trying
to continue the fight against
sexism today.”

The champagne breakfasts and $100-a-ticket
gala dinners that go on these days to celebrate
International Women’s Day (IWD) couldn’t be
further from its radical beginnings. The socialists
that initiated IWD would be horrified to see
right-wingers from the Chamber of Commerce
to the Liberal Party of Australia holding events
to mark the day. IWD actually finds its origins
with an illegal meeting to discuss ‘the women
in the working class struggle against women’s
question’. This meeting was broken up by the police
oppression, and against the system of capitalism but this did not stop women continuing to organise.
which breeds it, exploitation and inequality.
Australia has similar stories of mass marches,
Uncovering the forgotten history of IWD is to meetings and rebellion marking IWD. The Militant
reclaim the day from the grips of the political
Women’s Organisation called a rally in Sydney in
Right, and to remember the heroic struggles of March 1928 demanding an 8-hour day for shop
working class women in history. Their stories
girls, no piece work and paid annual leave. The
have a lot to offer to those of us trying to
MWG established important networks for women
continue the fight against sexism today.
activists around the country and created a platform
International Working Women’s Day (as it was for women to fight for equality and act around
political issues.
first known) was established by Clara Zetkin,
a German socialist and leading member
of the German Social Democratic party in
1910. The first IWD in 1911 saw more than
a million women and men take up the idea
enthusiastically, with rallies and marches in
Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark
and other major industrial cities of Europe. The
slogan for IWD was : “The vote for women will
unite our strength in the struggle for socialism.”

Stories of many inspiring women activists came out
of the MWG’s actions including that of Jean Young,
a barmaid and the first elected female organiser
of the Liquor Trades Movement. She organised
amongst workers in hotels, campaigning around
the issue of equal pay, despite the union executive
attempting to restrict this as hotels ‘weren’t suitable
places for women to enter’.

IWD events took on many issues, with many
of the marches centred on the demand for
peace. In Switzerland, secret manifestos were
distributed detailing women activist’s opposition
to the Swiss war effort, and in Russia female
members of the Bolsheviks packed out a hall

So International Women’s day has a long and active
history of political struggle against the system and
shows the strength of women in these movements.
This is very different to the International Women’s
Day we see today in Australia and all over the world.
Much like everything under capitalism, corporations

Anna Morgan is another inspiring female activist
According to the Russian revolutionary socialist that came out of the MWG tradition. Morgan
Alexandra Kollontai, “Germany and Austria
denounced the ‘black flag of the Aboriginal
were one seething, trembling sea of women…
Protection Board’ at the 1934 Melbourne
Meetings were organised everywhere – in the
International Women’s Day rally calling for legal
small towns and even in the villages, halls were changes and access to social welfare for indigenous
packed full.”
people.

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growing strong

use this historically militant day as yet another way
to try and squeeze money out of ordinary people
or worse still, celebrate big businesses with million
dollar functions.
The UN Women website suggests ‘fun’ events to
celebrate International Women’s Day, which include
‘An Afternoon of Opera and Song’ at Lerida Estate
Winery if you live in NSW, at a casual $75 a ticket,
an IWD breakfasts hosted on the day in major cities
for an easy $90 a head. Even Gina Rhinehart gets
in on IWD, with the Chamber of Minerals and
Energy hosting The Women is Resources Awards to
‘champion the WA resources sector’ and ‘recognise
individuals and organisations working to build worldclass industry’.
Hosting ridiculously expensive functions that
ordinary, working class women cannot afford to
attend and championing the mining industry which
exploits thousands of workers is a far cry from
Zetkin’s dream of an International Women’s Day
that was about fighting for equality and against the
corruption of capitalism.
The major political parties are clearly not the answer
to achieving equal rights for women. Under the
Abbott Liberal Government Zoe’s Law no 2, a law

which grants personhood to a foetus over twenty
weeks old meaning harming it is manslaughter, has
been pushed through the NSW State Parliament and
laws like it are emerging in states all over Australia.
This is clearly an attack on women’s reproductive
rights. Julia Gillard, in her term as ALP Prime
Minister, on the same day she made her famous
anti-misogyny speech denouncing Tony Abbott for
his sexist behaviour in parliament forced over 100
000 single parents (90% of them being women) off
the Parenting Payment onto the Newstart Allowance.
This cut meant parents lost approximately $60 to
$100 a week and also forced single parents with
children over eight years old off Newstart onto the
dole.
In light of these attacks it is clear the fight for
women’s rights lies in the hands of ordinary people.
It must be fought the way in which Zetkin and
other’s after her championed: through taking to
the streets in protest of sexist policies and through
fighting the governments and the whole capitalist
system that create them. March 8 2014 marks 104
years since Zetkin purposed the first International
Women’s Day in August 1910. The radical history of
this day should be remembered through a continued
fight for women’s rights.

Join the International Women’s Day rally Sydney:
Saturday March 8, 11am at Sydney Town Hall.
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PAGE 23

The Case For Wom*n’s Self Defence
By Bridget Harilaou
In Australian society, the prevalence of gendered violence is both shocking and horrifying, particularly
for wom*n aged 18 – 24. The Australian Institute of Family Studies states that in their 2012 report, 55
000 Australian wom*n had been sexually assaulted in the last year and that 1.3 million had been sexually
assaulted since the age of fifteen. Almost 20% of attacks were by their current partner and 28% were by
a previous partner. These statistics prove that sexual abuse is an issue that needs to be addressed today
through education, gender equality, destroying every aspect of rape culture, and empowering wom*n
through knowledge; knowledge on how rape culture is perpetuated through victim-blaming, knowledge on
how to recognise sexual assault and abusive relationships, and knowledge on how to overcome attackers
who are larger, stronger and more violent than themselves.
The human body is an amazing organism, but it has undeniable weaknesses. No matter how tall, muscular
or aggressive a human being is, their system can be shut down by targeting vulnerable areas – eye sockets,
throats, jaw lines, sternums, knee caps, groins and spines. These are all target areas that can incapacitate
anyone, if struck. By giving this knowledge to wom*n and teaching them how to have the survival mindset
to use this knowledge, they can feel safer on the streets, they can know exactly how to take down any
opponent and they can have more options on how to escape from a violent attack. There is no singlehanded way for one individual to prevent sexual assault. Telling wom*n to avoid or stop asocial predators
is a pre-condition that starts the cycle of victim-blaming because it places responsibility of the attack onto
the victim. You’ve all heard wom*n being told, “why were you so drunk?’ “she should have said no,” “she
was asking for it.” Thinking of self defence as an escape tactic, rather than ‘stopping an assault’ keeps self
defence away from victim-blaming arguments – and that is what the Sexual Assault Awareness Committee
is bringing you this year.

Starting in the 3rd week of Semester 1, and running
until Week 12, this course in Wom*n’s Self Defence
seeks to give wom*n the tools they need to face the
reality of our society.
The workshops run as one hour of physical self defence training, and one hour of a feminist discussion
group covering the ethics of self defence and issues surrounding sexual assault. By addressing both
theoretical and practical elements of self defence, these workshops will run in a horizontal learning
structure so you do not need to attend the first classes to be able to participate at any given week. The
mindset you need once someone has threatened you with violence is something that civilised socialised
human beings never usually need to access, but with supervised training, a safe autonomous environment
and the support of experienced self defence instructors, we hope that wom*n will leave our 10-week course
feeling empowered. Confidence in the movements and abilities of their individual bodies will help boost the
more important confidence in their minds. Fitness, ability, and experience are of no consequence in these
workshops, they are open to anyone willing to participate, so don’t be shy!
At the end of the day, learning self defence can be equated to learning how to swim. If someone pushes a
non-swimmer into the deep end of a pool hoping to drown them – it is never the non-swimmer’s fault. ‘She
was wearing a swimming costume’ is not an excuse, because they just tried to freaking drown someone!
Let us burn victim-blaming in a fire until it is dead and gone. If you are a woman who wants to learn how
to ‘swim’, then this is the workshop for you. Please contact Tenaya Alattas or Bridget Harilaou through
the Wom*n’s Collective group on Facebook. You can also join the ‘Autonomous Wom*n’s Self Defence
Workshops’ Facebook group to keep updated on class times and discussion materials.
PAGE 24

growing strong

it was then:
your dreams held close just
as your mother once held you only
in hands not as gentle and that
crushed their contents with every flinch from
the world around
you discovered that if you curved
in on yourself the ridges of your spine
were carved deep enough to make you
a cog in someone else’s machine
guns ringing the day you learnt that
‘sisterhood’ played by the same rules as genetics
your worth was not your own
so to the mountains you ran
and there found neither silence nor solitude
only simple facts:
there is no need to smile at every camera lens
docility is not dues paid for occupying space or
the slantt of your eyes
and apology for apology is not self­- preservation
but erosion
which made the valleys on the other side
dusty flatness boldly grasping in all directions
over which you presided with knees scraped
and realised that